"DRY" 2003 Obituary

DRYDEN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-11 published
Hockey News co-founder had winning formula
By James CHRISTIEFriday,April 11, 2003 - Page S10
Toronto -- No one was going to get rich from The Hockey News,
Ken McKENZIE freely admitted. The wealth he shared was in the
information it contained for fans and those in the hockey industry.
McKENZIE who died Wednesday at Trillium Hospital in Mississauga,
was co-founder 1947 -- along with Will
CÔTÉ -- of the publication
that came to be known as hockey's Bible. He was 79.
His son, John
McKENZIE, said Ken died suddenly when he went into
septic shock following surgery for colon cancer.
Ken McKENZIE and
CÔTÉ birthed a magazine that was a landmark
in the Canadian periodicals industry -- a sport publication that
survived when so many failed and folded. It evolved from a house
organ for the National Hockey League --
McKENZIE was originally
an National Hockey League publicist -- into an encyclopedic,
authoritative publication. The content matured from reprints
of stories by hockey beat writers in six National Hockey League
towns to exclusive columns by The Hockey News's own editors and
writers such as Steve
DRYDEN and Bob
McKENZIE (no relation,)
who could challenge the National Hockey League and international
hockey establishment. Ken
McKENZIE was presented with the Elmer
Ferguson Award for his pioneering role on the magazine's 50th
anniversary in 1997 and inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
"He loved hockey and sports of all kinds," said John
McKENZIE,
a correspondent with American Broadcasting Company News in New
York. "He had this idea when he was in the Royal Canadian Air
Force. He got up on a table in the mess hall and called his buddies
around and said 'If I started a hockey paper, would you guys
buy it?'
"They all cheered. He started with only $383 and The Hockey News
was born."
Ken McKENZIE cited the figure as precisely $383.81 in a 50th
anniversary story in The Globe and Mail. He was famed for keeping
a close eye on finances down to the penny.
Along with editing associate Charlie
HALPIN,
McKENZIE operated
the paper on a shoestring with a handful of employees. Newspaper
beat writers in each team's city were paid only a few dollars.
"When I paid those guys, it was 10 bucks, later on 50 bucks,
whatever, it was the going rate,"
McKENZIE said. "It was always
cheap. You weren't going to get rich in this business.... I'd
say to a guy, 'You may be big in Calgary or Edmonton or Vancouver,
but if you write for this paper, they'll know you all across
Canada.' A lot of guys liked that."
As the National Hockey League's publicity director from the 1940s
into the late 1960s,
McKENZIE developed press and radio guides
and had access to teams' statistics and mailing lists. He and
CÔTÉ used those to convince almost 4,000 fans to send in $2 each
($3 in the United States) as advance subscription payments to
finance the first issue. The circulation was 20,000 by the end
of its first year.
TheHockeyNews under
McKENZIE maintained its comfortable relationship
with the National Hockey League.
McKENZIE bought out
COTE's interest
in the mid-1960s, then eventually sold 80 per cent of the magazine
to New York's
WCCPublishing in 1973 for a reported $4-million
and the balance in the 1980s. The headquarters moved from Montreal
to Toronto and
McKENZIE stayed as publisher intil 1981.
He wanted to continue writing and working, rather than retire,
and after leaving the hockey paper, he and
HALPIN bought into
OntarioGolfNews.McKENZIE was still associated with the golf
paper at his death, said Ontario Golf advertising executive Ted
VANCE.
"I know it was first viewed as a house organ, but go through
his stuff in the early years and it wasn't strictly milquetoast,
said DRYDEN,
TheHockeyNews editor from 1991 to 2002. "He
may have had favourites and protected some people. As National
Hockey League publicist, he could not be a vociferous critic.
But long before the sale of The Hockey News, it was getting an
edge to it. In the end, it was a helluva idea."
Added Bob McKENZIE: "
Whatever anyone says, it's a good legacy
to have started The Hockey News and to see where it's at today."
Parent corporation Tanscontinental Publishing said The Hockey
News has a paid circulation of more than 100,000.
Ken McKENZIE is survived by his wife
Lorraine of Mississauga,
four children -- John
McKENZIE and Jane Mckenzie
KOPEC of New
York, Kim McKENZIE in Oakville, Ontario, and Nancy Mckenzie
PONTURO
in Redding, Connecticut., -- and five grandchildren. His funeral
will be 11 a.m., Monday April 14, at St. Luke's Anglican Church
on Dixie Road, Mississauga.

DRYDEN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-23 published
Hockey coach who changed the game
'Captain Video' introduced new teaching tools in more than 25
years with the National Hockey League
By William
HOUSTONMonday,June 23, 2003 - Page R5
The morning after Roger
NEILSON was fired from his first of seven
head coaching jobs in the National Hockey League, he returned
to his office at Maple Leaf Gardens.
He viewed and edited the videotape of the Toronto Maple Leafs'
loss to the Montreal Canadiens the night before. When a replacement
didn't show up, he put the Leafs through a practice. Later, he
was asked by a reporter why he was still hanging around.
"Somebody had to run the practice," he said. "Whoever comes in
will have to look at the tapes."
The next day, Mr.
NEILSON was reinstated when the club could
not find a replacement, but Maple Leafs owner Harold
BALLARD,
always looking for publicity, wanted to make his return behind
the bench a surprise. Mr.
BALLARD tried to talk him into wearing
a ski mask or bag over his head, and then dramatically throwing
it off at the start of the game. Numbed by the three-day ordeal
of not knowing his status in the organization, Mr.
NEILSON almost
agreed, but ultimately declined.
"He hated that story," said Jim
GREGORY, who hired Mr.
NEILSON
to coach the Leafs in 1977 and was fired along with the coach
at the end of the 1978-79 season. "I hated that story."
The incident reflected poorly on Mr.
BALLARD, but in a smaller
way it helped create the image of Mr.
NEILSON we have today,
that of a coach who put the team ahead of his ego, who was loyal
to his players and dedicated to his job.
Mr. NEILSON, who died Saturday after a long battle with cancer,
will be remembered not just as a man who loved hockey, but also
as a skilled strategist and innovator. He stressed defensive
play and systems, and also physical fitness. In Toronto, he was
given the nickname "Captain Video," because he was among the
first to use videotape to instruct his players and prepare for
games.
When Mr. NEILSON, a soft-spoken man famous for his dry sense
of humour, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year,
he was asked about the late, controversial Leafs owner.
"I'm sure he's looking up rather than down," he said, with a
smile, before saying Mr.
BALLARD did some "good things for hockey."
Mr. NEILSON was also named to the Order of Canada in January.
Roger Paul
NEILSON was born in Toronto on June 16, 1934, and
went as far as Junior B hockey as a player. While earning a degree
at McMaster University in Hamilton, he started coaching kids
baseball and hockey.
After graduating, he taught high school in Toronto and his passion
by then was coaching. In hockey, he won Toronto and provincial
titles at different levels. In 10 years, his Metro Toronto midget
baseball teams won nine championships, once defeating a team
that included pitcher Ken
DRYDEN, who would later become a Hall
of Fame goaltender with the Montreal Canadiens.
Mr. NEILSON scouted for the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario
Major Junior Hockey League before moving to Peterborough in 1966
to coach the team. During his 10 years behind the bench, the
Petes never finished below third place and won the league championship
once.
By the time Mr.
NEILSON moved to the National Hockey League to
coach the Leafs in 1977, his reputation for creativity and also
mischief was firmly established. In baseball, he used, at least
once, a routine involving a peeled apple, in which the catcher
threw what appeared to be the ball wildly over the third baseman,
prompting the runner to race home. As the apple lay in the outfield,
the catcher met the runner at home plate with the real baseball
in his glove.
Always looking for a loophole in the rules, Mr.
NEILSON's ploys
instigated rule changes in hockey. On penalty shots against his
team, he used Ron
STACKHOUSE, a big defenceman, instead of a
goalie. Mr.
STACKHOUSE would charge out of the net and cause
the shooter to flub his shot. The rule was subsequently changed
to require the goalie to stay in his crease.
Over an National Hockey League career that lasted more than 25
years, Mr.
NEILSON holds the record for most teams coached (seven.)
He also held four assistant coaching positions. But he never
won the Stanley Cup. He didn't coach great teams. He seemed to
enjoy the challenge of taking an average group of players, making
them into a solid, defensive unit, and seeing them succeed.
In his first year with the Leafs, he moulded a previously undisciplined
group of players into a strong unit that upset the New York Islanders
in the 1978 playoffs.
In 1982, Mr.
NEILSON's playoff success with the Vancouver Canucks
underscored his skill as a tactician and manipulator.
WhenCanuck head coach Harry
NEALE was suspended late in the
season, Mr.
NEILSON, his assistant, took over. The Canucks weren't
expected to advance past the first round of the playoffs. But
backed by strong goaltending from Richard
BRODEUR, they defeated
the Calgary Flames and then the Los Angeles Kings to advance
to the semi-finals against Chicago.
The Canucks won the first game, but with Chicago leading 4-1
late in the second game, Mr.
NEILSON, unhappy with the officiating,
waved a white towel from the bench, as if to surrender to the
referee. He was fined for the demonstration, but the white towel
became a symbol of home-fan solidarity. In the Stanley Cup final,
the Canucks were swept by the powerhouse Islanders.
In addition to Toronto and Vancouver, Mr.
NEILSON's journey through
the National Hockey League consisted of head coaching jobs with
the Buffalo Sabres, the Kings, New York Rangers, Florida Panthers
and Philadelphia Flyers. He worked as a co-coach in Chicago,
and as an assistant coach with the Sabres, St. Louis Blues and
Ottawa Senators.
Ottawa, where he was hired in 2000, was his final destination.
In the 2001-02 season, head coach Jacques
MARTIN stepped down
for the final two games of the regular season to allow Mr.
NEILSON
to coach his 1,000th regular-season game.
Frank ORR, who covered hockey for The Toronto Star for more than
30 years, said, in 2002, "Roger is one of the few people I've
met in any line of work who never had a bad word to say about
anybody."

DRYSDALE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-29 published
STANFIELD,
KatherineMargaret (née
STAIRS)
Died peacefully December 26, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Born February
1, 1918, eldest of Katherine
(DRYSDALE) and Cyril W.
STAIRS,
Halifax, she attended Halifax Ladies College, Edgehill and the
Halifax Business College before working at Wm. Stairs son and Morrow.
She married Gordon (Pete)
STANFIELD in 1940. They resided in
Sydney and New Glasgow before settling in Halifax, summering
in Bedford and vacationing in Bermuda. Kay will be remembered
as a people person who made a life long contribution to her community
through her many interests and activities as a member of the
Waegwaltic and Saraguay Clubs, the Junior League, All Saints
Cathedral, Victoria Hall and the garden club. She is survived
by sisters: Phyllis
(MacDOUGALL) Toronto, Doshie
(MacKIMMIE-
KAUMEYER)
Calgary, Betty
(FREUND)
Johannesburg,SouthAfrica and brother
Allan STAIRS,
Montreal: daughters Nancy and Pegi, Calgary; sons
David (Barbara) Halifax and Gordon (Kay), Dartmouth; grand_sons
Peter (Karin
SORRA), New Jersey, Michael, Vancouver, John (Julie)
Calgary, David K and Matthew, Halifax; great grand_son William,
New Jersey. She was predeceased by her husband of 55 years (1995)
and brother Arthur
STAIRS,
Halifax.The family is most grateful
for the care and support given to Kay by the staff and Friends
at Melville Heights, her home since 1995. The family will receive
visitors at Snows Funeral Home, Windsor Street, Halifax on Monday
December 29 from 7-9: 00 p.m. The funeral service will be at All Saints Cathedral, Tuesday, December 30, 1:30 p.m.